Hello Dave,
A connection is probably a better word. Oral traditions have always preceded the writings. There are annals about the Mesopotamia flood that are older than the book of Genesis. And with the same similarities. Even the book of Genesis contain two sets of traditions, The Yahveistic and the Elohistic. Two narratives about the creation and the flood in the same book.dave52_47: It may have but that doesn't mean that Judaism has it's roots in Zoroastrianism.
Protestantism has borrowed many things from Catholicism. That is not a surprise and this happens in any schismatic occurrence.Your ****ogy breaks down with the Catholicism & Protestantism example you give. If you look back at the early church you will find the roots of protestantism which pre-dates Roman Catholicism.
Concerning the Early Church I recommend the reading of the Fathers of the Church and particularly the historian Eusebius of Caesarea. There was not protestants in the Antiquity.
Protestantism has his roots in Catholicism because protestants accept easily the seven Universal Councils and the canon of the Catholic Church.Catholicism did not create Protestantism. Christianity does have it's roots in Judaism but the last chapter is not written in Judaism yet.
I never used the word "evolution" in my posts. This is your perception. When two cultures or civilizations or religions clash, it is normal to see things amalgamating. Greeks, Romans and Arabs have contributed largely to the build of the western world.When Jesus is received as the Messiah, which according to even Jewish prophecy will happen in the future, then it will be Christian, just as it was with the disciples who were all Jewish - as was their Messiah. It is not one religion evolving into another form-but the fulfillment of God's plan of redemption.
Curiously, if I examine the systematic dispensationalism I can also say that the revelation knew many changes (i.e. with the distinctive covenants of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc).However, this is not my thought.
I agree with you and that was the Tertullian perception in that time. However, notice also that they believed that the devil anticipated the future and that he had foreknowledge of God plan. On this I can disagree with Tertullian.Note that he is saying that the "devil' is "perverting the truth" denying that Christianity owes it's origin to Zoroastrianism or Mithraism. And I haven't said there were no similarities -only that it does not prove that Christianity
"borrowed" from it to establish their own religion. You tend to see all religion as evolutionary. I don't.
C.S. Lewis and even J.R.R. Tolkien his good friend. Both had seen the myths as something that is not fairy tales (ex: Heinrich Schliemann had found the city of Troy with the help of Homer poems about the epic of lliad). In brief, there is truths in myths.You'll have to elaborate some on this one. It's not all that clear to me what exactly you are saying.
Here I suggest "The Power of the Myth" by Joseph Campbell.
There is sources BC also, and many. The oral sources and also scriptures as the hieroglyphs and the cuneiform had preceded Jesus. There is similarities with the Horus life too (Egypt).I guess you'll have to read it again. I don't know how you could miss it. He does agree that some similarities exist. He also quotes "post-christian" sources as the origin of some of these. You haven't commented on these sources? I'll wait on your reply.
Trinity